Theme 3.2 Health on social media

The emergence of social media has allowed people to become both active posters and passive recipients of communication and media related to health. For instance, people may post exercise goals and performance on social media, but may at the same time be exposed to friends drinking alcohol and/or indulging in unhealthy snacks. Although this topic is popular among communication scholars, a lot is still unknown as to why people have become active posters, what the effects are of exposure to health-related content on social media, and how (for instance) social network structures play a role in this. In this themes, students will use surveys or experimental designs to study these important and interesting research questions.

Our program

The program Persuasive Communication addresses those communication processes that are intended to achieve specific persuasive goals, as is the case in, for instance, marketing communication, health education, and public information campaigns. The research is aimed at understanding the dynamics that shape uses and effects of mediated persuasive communication. Read more >>